


The Nicest Thing Anyone's Ever Done For Me

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 04:19:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19783126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "When Pitch breaks Jack’s staff and throws him into the ravine, Jack falls unconscious due to the loss of his powers and is out for the rest of the movie’s plot. The Guardians still win over Pitch - all the while still believing Jack betrayed them. However, when time goes by and they hear no word of Jack, someone gets worried and a search begins to find out where he is.Bonus:- If Jack somehow with the last of his strength makes it so he protects Baby Tooth from freezing to death and she’s what leads the Guardians to Jack.- If Bunny is at first reluctant about searching for the ‘traitor’ Jack.- Bunny is the first to find (or second to arrive at) where Jack is.- Bunny becoming increasingly worried - either during the search, if/when he finds Jack or afterwards when they try to get Jack to wake up.- Jack waking up is optional.- If Jack wakes up, the Guardians listens to the full story of why Jack wasn’t there to save Easter in time.- Angst is very, very, very welcome, if anon can manage to work it in. :3[cut for length]"Jack wakes up, and Bunny explains what he did to fix his staff. Fluff only! No angst for you, 3-face using anon!





	The Nicest Thing Anyone's Ever Done For Me

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 4/3/2016.

—it’s wood, isn’t it?—  
  
—but his powers might—  
  
—unsuitable? No, my behavior was unsuitable, a traitor wouldn’t—  
  
—if you really think you can make it work—  
  
—I’ve got to. I’ve got to—  
  
The last time Jack woke up, it was cold, and dark, and he was scared. And it had been a long, long time ago. He hadn’t needed to sleep since then, so it was incredibly strange for him to be waking up now. Had he really been sleeping? Had he really been dreaming? He knew what dreams were like, he had seen a lot of them, but the voices he had heard hadn’t seemed like dreams. They seemed like they had really happened, but he couldn’t instantly place the voices. And what had they been talking about?  
  
He couldn’t know unless he really woke up. But that would be all right, wouldn’t it? He was warm, and sunlight was pressing against his eyelids. Even if he was still a little scared. He couldn’t remember exactly why he had been asleep.  
  
But if his own mind wouldn’t tell him, only someone else could. And he had to be awake for that.  
  
He opened his eyes very slightly, peeking through the lashes to find himself in a world of greenery and flowers. The Warren. Bunny’s Warren. And he had been there for Easter, because of Pitch! And Pitch had delayed him, tempting him with his memories, and everyone had thought he betrayed them, and he was in Antarctica, and Pitch and been there, and Baby Tooth, and then…then what?  
  
“Morning,” said a voice—Bunny’s voice! And he sounded…relieved?  
  
Jack opened his eyes a little wider, to find Bunny crouching beside him. “Bunny? What’s…what’s going on?” The Warren, if anything, looked more green and lush than it had the first time he’d seen it, so Pitch must have been defeated, but how?  
  
“You’re waking up from a pretty unexpected nap,” Bunny said. He was trying to sound casual, but not exactly managing it, and Jack grew more confused than ever. “Don’t move yet, all right? Your bed’s probably not what you’re used to.”  
  
Puzzled, Jack raised his head, to find that he was draped, from neck to toes, with soft green grasses and vines, that, he guessed from the dense ridges of greenery along his sides, were all still living. “What…?”  
  
“He’s back,” Bunny said, in a tone of voice different from before. “Let him go, unless you want to be frozen.”  
  
The greenery retreated from Jack’s body, leaving him lying on soft earth between two rows of tall grass. He sat up and turned to Bunny. “What did you mean about me being back? I’ve sort of been back, haven’t I? I was in Antarctica, but I’ve been here, now, and—oh, oh, ow! Why am I so stiff?”  
  
“You’ve been sleeping for about six months,” Bunny said. “That’s probably got something to do with it.”  
  
“Six months!” Jack almost fell back to the ground. “How—what—so, you’ve mellowed out to me in that time, apparently,” he finished with a little grin, though he couldn’t hide his confusion and worry entirely.  
  
“Guess you could say that,” Bunny said. “Look, other than being stiff, do you feel all right? I don’t want you walking around if you’re going to keel over again, and I’ve got to show you something.”  
  
Jack’s face turned thoughtful and he rolled his shoulders, bent his knees, stretched his neck. “I feel okay, but I’m still confused, and I’m missing—where’s my staff?”  
  
“Right, so you don’t remember that part,” Bunny said. He offered his arm and Jack took it, getting to his feet with a grimace. “Do you remember seeing Baby Tooth in Antarctica?”  
  
“Yeah,” Jack said. “Pitch had her. Is she all right? I know I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t think of how, she was right…she was right in his fist.” Jack shuddered.  
  
“She’s fine,” Bunny said. “All right. I’m not sure how to space this out right for you, but this is what happened, as Baby Tooth told Tooth. Pitch demanded your staff in exchange for her life. You gave it up, and in a moment of distraction Baby Tooth pecked Pitch as hard as she could, and he flung her away. She righted herself just in time to see Pitch break your staff in two. You collapsed, and he pushed you into an ice crevasse. Threw the pieces of your staff down after you. Baby Tooth flew down to investigate, though she knew she probably wouldn’t be able to fly back out, the way our powers were falling, then. She found that you weren’t, well, dead, but you didn’t seem likely to wake up anytime soon, either. And she couldn’t fly out, or jump to Tooth, or the Tooth Palace, so she stayed there with you. Your sweatshirt kept her from freezing, actually. When she started feeling a little better, she also started calling for help with all her strength.”  
  
They’ve reached the edge of a river of clear water, not paint. A single, slender sapling grew on the bank. “We found you there, after Pitch’s defeat—that’s a story everyone’s going to want to tell you—and Baby Tooth told us the whole story of what had really happened, how Pitch had tricked you. And. Well, we didn’t know if you’d ever wake up. Obviously your staff needed to be fixed, but I told North to get away with any idea of wood glue or the like. If breaking your staff had made you look like death, then it had to be a living thing. And fixing that was my business. And since you’re awake, I guess it worked.”  
  
Jack smiled at him, speechless.  
  
Bunny shrugged. “Always wanted to like you Jack, but it’s a bit of a risk, believing in someone with no reason.”  
  
“Well.” Jack looked away. “So, where’s my staff now? You fixed it, so…”  
  
Bunny made a face. “You may not like this. It’s right here, it’s what I wanted to show you. There.” He gestured to the sapling, its thin trunk wound around with flowering vines, its small crown growing from a single curving branch as thick as its trunk. It had a knotted lump about halfway up its length.  
  
“You turned it into a tree?”  
  
“Well, how else was I supposed to make it grow back together? And the roots don’t even run deep and I’m sure the leaves will fall off once you start using it again, and—”  
  
“No, Bunny, I only meant—that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”  
  
“Come on, don’t say that yet. You’ve still got your memories to look at. Speaking of which, the others will definitely want to know you’re awake. You stay here, I’ll go send the signal.”  
  
Bunny hurried away.  
  
Jack smiled to himself and reached up to look at one of the leaves growing from the top of his staff. The patterns of veins in it sort of looked like snowflakes. No, he really didn’t think anything in his memory was going to top this. 


End file.
